Jerry Farry: Visiting the Victors

In the last three years Jerry Farry has pedaled more miles on his trusty Schwinn than most will ride in their entire lives — 9,900 miles, to be exact. The Victor resident, who celebrated his 95th birthday on Dec. 30, set out on a quest to take a “virtual visit” to each and every town, village, or hamlet of Victor in the United States via his exercise bicycle by 2013.

In the last three years Jerry Farry has pedaled more miles on his trusty Schwinn than most will ride in their entire lives — 9,900 miles, to be exact.

And if that number sounds impressive, here’s another: Ferry is 95 years old. He started riding when he was 80.

The Victor resident, who celebrated his 95th birthday on Dec. 30, began mapping his plan out three years ago in honor of his town’s bicentennial celebration. His quest: to take a “virtual visit” to each and every town, village, or hamlet of Victor in the United States via his exercise bicycle by 2013.

“I never leave my living room,” said Farry. “I’m not a good walker, but my knees are perfect. My doctors tell me I’m doing great. It’s been a good thing for me.”

When he crosses the finish line, sometime in March or April he estimates, Farry will have logged an astounding 10,362 miles aboard his Schwinn, now a permanent fixture in the Legacy apartment he shares with his wife.

“I started because I knew this was the 200th anniversary of Victor,” said Farry. “I see people doing all kinds of walks for Muscular Dystrophy and (other causes), and I thought it might be a good idea to ride my bicycle and do a virtual trip to all the Victors and complete it in 2012. Of course I’m missing it by a couple of months, but the effort is there, and the majority is behind me. It’s been an interesting experience.”

Charting the course

Make no mistake — this kind of a journey takes more than a good pair of riding shoes and a comfortable bike saddle.

“First of all I plan it,” said Farry. “I have to decide how many miles a day I will ride. Every year my plan becomes more sophisticated. I use Rand McNally as my road planner, and the computer keeps track of my miles.”

Farry, a former engineer, keeps detailed records and projections on an Excel spreadsheet. His three-ring binders are bulging with logs, maps, and pages that describe the locations and characteristics of each Victor he visits.

“I use the Wikipedia encyclopedia,” Farry said. “As soon as I go to a town I try to find a write up about it, and I put all the Victors down with their latitude and longitude just for information.”

If needed he corresponds with town representatives or historians to learn more about the community he’s “visiting.”

“I don’t (actually) ‘stop’ anyplace, because this is ‘virtually,’” Farry said. “I don’t get off my bike and say ‘hey I’m here.’ What I do is call them up on the phone and say ‘by the way, I just passed through your town on my bike.’ They try to be helpful.”

Page 2 of 4 - And if it’s a particularly long stretch between Victors, Farry will “visit” other towns along the way and research them.

“It would be boring has hell if you just ride, ride, ride without stopping off at places,” Farry said.

In the groove

“In the beginning I was riding seven days a week, but it was very, very frustrating,” he said. “It was like this was taking over my whole life. I was afraid to do anything else because I always had to ride the bike. When I went into 2012, I said ‘no more of that.’”

Now he’s “cut back” to six days a week — ten miles every day, 60 miles a week.

“You can never tell how you’re going to feel,” he said. “Sometimes you have to skip a couple days because you’re under the weather.”

Although he tries to spend Saturdays catching up on miles, sometimes it’s hard to stay the course.

“It’s a bad day because I go to church on Saturday and that knocks part of the afternoon out,” Farry said, “and sometimes I go visiting, or my daughter wants to go out to eat or something like that. My social life interferes.”

Staying motivated

For inspiration, Farry listens to music while he rides — he has assembled 31 cassettes, one for each day of the month.

“When you ride to music it’s like dancing because you can get a beat from that thing and it helps you tremendously,” Farry said. “That’s what helps me keep my pace — if I get a song on there like ‘Stayin’ Alive,’ or something like that on there, that’s going pretty fast.”

Farry’s not a fan of “the popular modern music,” no sir. Nothing that’s all “just guitars and drums.” He gets his best pedal power from Keiko Matsui and Oscar Peterson.

“When you ride the bike, it’s intensity and time,” he said. “You have to get up to at least 40 RP Ms. If I were 20 years younger, I’d probably be doing 60 RP Ms, but I can only do 40.”

When he first started riding — at age 80 — it was hit and miss. After about a year he decided to get serious.

“I started keeping track of my time,” he said. “If I don’t, I’m going to start to lose interest in doing this.”

Now he rides about 15 miles an hour for about 20 minutes in the morning, 20 in the afternoon, and 15 minutes at night. And does some resistance exercises too.

“Anyone that’s interested in doing any kind of exercise,” Farry said, “I feel that keeping track of your time and setting goals for yourself is a tremendous way to keep you motivated.”

Page 3 of 4 - Anna Alger, Executive Director at the Legacy, spoke highly of Farry’s drive, and said he has even gone so far as to map out his own walking trail in the community.

“Jerry has been an inspiration to all,” she said, “and has certainly embraced staying active. We have enjoyed his vast knowledge of the internet, and inventive sprit. He has a creative energy that is infectious!”

About the Victors

According to his research, Farry said there were originally 22 Victors nationwide, but now there are actually only 20.

“We lost one in Texas, and one is underwater in Missouri,” Farry said. “They built a dam up around Mark Twain territory (and flooded it). I have a letter that says there is still a sign on Route 154 that (points to) where Victor used to be.”

Farry said most of the Victors are quite small.

“The one in Missouri had only one lady in it — she was the one lady that was left,” he said. “Other Victors have nine or ten people in them, maybe 100. The majority are in (sparsely) populated places.”

Victor, Iowa, boasts a population of 2000, while Victor, Montana, is made up of mostly young people.

“Kansas has such a small Victor that I can’t find it on the map,” Farry said. “It doesn’t have a Chamber of Commerce, so I called a Chamber of Commerce nearby that gave me the information I needed.”

Which Victor surprised him the most? It was California.

“I thought that the Victor out there was going to be sophisticated and probably bigger than the Victor in New York,” Farry said. “I found out that the one out there — they don’t even have a Chamber of Commerce. I wrote their historian I nice letter, but he never responded, so I figured it’s a dead city.”

Mitch Donovan, president of the Victor Chamber of Commerce, has visited with Farry and heard about his virtual travels firsthand.

“I’ve been up there and I’ve been charmed by Jerry,” he said. “I’ve seen him on his bike and gotten a copy of some of his records about the Victors. It’s turned me on to researching some of the other Victors.”

Donovan said one is particularly interesting to him — it’s the Victor in Colorado, near Cripple Creek.

“They have a chili cook-off (like we do). They’ve got casinos, donkey derby days, art shows, an ice show, and Victorian society. I’d like to investigate the idea of a sister city program — that’s in my idea bag right now.”

Farry characterized the remaining Victors as “so inconsequential that there’s nothing to know about them.”

No surprise, his pick for the best Victor in the land was his own hometown.

Page 4 of 4 - “My favorite Victor has been Victor, New York,” Farry said. “The only other one I would pick is Victor, Idaho. Because that’s where people live who work in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the (Tetons ski resorts).”

What’s next?

“I have 462 miles to go,” said Farry. “I’m stranded down in West Virginia (virtually speaking). Once I get the two Victors in West Virginia, I’m on my way home.”

He hopes to finish up his 20-Victor tour in March or April.

And after that?

“I don’t know what I want to do next — I may take a siesta after this,” said Farry. “It takes a lot of work and planning.”

He’s toying with the idea of a nice, relaxing 5,000-mile bike ride from Alaska to the Panama Canal.

“Once I have a plan in my head, I can put it down on paper.”

In the mean time, he’ll keep urging others to start exercising and do whatever it takes to stay motivated.

“I’ve been inspired by his goal setting,” said Donovan. “It has kept me on my exercise bike longer. I love the idea that he sets long- and short-term goals for himself and then chips away at them.”

Most of all, he’ll sit back and enjoy his own Victor, and the centennial celebrations.